The Birds of Whitlingham & Thorpe 2017
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The Birds of Whitlingham & Thorpe 2017 Compiled by James Emerson 1 Contents Page 2 – Contents & contact details Page 3 & 4 – Introduction & site map Page 5 -7 – New to Whitlingham: Ring-necked Parakeet Page 8-10 – Hawfinch irruption Page 11-12 – Visible migration at Whitlingham – a new approach to birding here Page 13-14 – Ringed wildfowl at Whitlingham in 2017 Page 15-16 – Still more colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls Page 17 – Whitlingham Wildfowl Count Page 18-48 – Whitlingham & Thorpe classified species list Page 49 – Appendix A – Expected species not recorded this year Page 50 – Appendix B – Escaped and released birds Page 51 – Appendix C – Hybrids & domestic wildfowl Page 52 – Acknowledgements & Further reading Get in touch I would welcome any comments, corrections or constructive criticisms about this report. These can be sent to me, along with any sightings for inclusion in the 2018 report, by emailing: [email protected]. All text copyright © James Emerson 2018 except the article on pages 11 & 12, © Justin Lansdell All photos copyright © James Emerson 2018 except those indicated. I am particularly grateful to Gary White for providing a large amount of photos from Whitlingham for use in this report, and also to Ricky Cleverley and Justin Lansdell who have also provided photos. 2 Introduction This is the sixth annual report of the bird species reported from the Whitlingham area (including Thorpe Marshes NWT reserve), covering sightings from 2017. It should be noted that this bird report is independent from any of the organisations that manages these sites, notably the Broads Authority, Whitlingham Charitable Trust, Norfolk Wildlife Trust and South Norfolk Council. A map of the recording area covered by this report can be found on the next page. Within this area most of the sightings come from the area around Whitlingham Great Broad and Thorpe Marshes. In a slight change to bring the report in line with the terms being used by the NWT I have adopted the name “Thorpe Marshes” rather than Thorpe Marsh, and “St Andrews Broad” rather than Thorpe Broad throughout the report. In addition to my monthly counts and other sightings, a large number of records have been supplied by other local birders, to whom I am grateful. I have included the majority of sightings that have been sent to me directly or reported online, with only a few being left out of the final report. This does however mean that many of the reported sightings in this report have not been seen by me personally. As a result I feel that for recording purposes the sightings in this report should be treated as unverified records, i.e. sightings should not be used for any ‘official’ purposes. In general when deciding what records and details to include I have adopted the following categorisation: Resident species and regular migrants – reports have been used to write a general summary for the species, with records only omitted if they were particularly unusual, for example very early or late records. Species recorded annually in low numbers at Whitlingham – species that occur in most years are dealt with as above but with more detail regarding the sightings Species seldom recorded at Whitlingham or particularly scarce locally – records included in the report with * before the species name. As much detail as possible is included with each of these records, in particular it is mentioned if the species recorded was photographed, if it was seen by more than one individual, if there were any other sightings nearby etc. These records also have the initials of the person who reported the sighting. Note that this won’t necessarily be the person who first found the species in the case of multi-observed records. County or national rarities – included at the editor’s discretion. Details of the record included as with local scarcities, but with an additional note as to whether the record has been submitted to and/or accepted by the relevant rarities committee, based on the latest WIP (work-in-pogress) files. 3 Observers are asked to send details of any noteworthy sightings direct to the county recorder, Neil Lawton. Details on how to do this can be found here: http://norfolkbirds.weebly.com/submitting-records.html. Any observer lucky enough to find a species at Whitlingham that is a county rarity is asked to send a description to the Norfolk Records Committee, who will publish their verdict in the Norfolk Bird & Mammal Report, which is published in the following autumn. The Whitlingham Recording area covered by this report. Where possible distinctive features make up the boundaries, for example the railway line along part of the north of the area and the A47 to the south. The key parts of the recording area are: Whitlingham Country Park, Trowse Meadow, Trowse Woods, Whitlingham Marsh LNR and Thorpe Marshes NWT. Crown Point Estate land north of the A47 is currently included, although as most of it has no public access there are seldom any sightings from this area. Areas of Thorpe St Andrew, including Thorpe Green, are just outside the recording area, however as the boundary is rather arbitrary, details of wildfowl and gulls recorded there have been included where it is likely that the birds involved were also sometimes present at or visible from Whitlingham. 4 New to Whitlingham: Ring-necked Parakeet James Emerson Ring-necked Parakeets have been a familiar sight in the London area since the 1970s, and more recently have spread outwards to other large urban centres. In 2014 breeding occurred just over the county border at the Ouse Washes in Cambridgeshire (Cambridgeshire Bird Club, 2014), and there have been several coastal sightings in the past that might suggest a few track the coast up from the Thames. Despite several sightings of Ring-necked Parakeets in Norfolk each year on social media or bird news services, few of these make it into the Norfolk Bird & Mammal Report. This could be for several reasons, such as observers assuming that records relate to escapes or not wanting to write out a description, but it does make it harder to track the spread of this species. Prior to this year there had been no sightings of Ring-necked Parakeets in the Whitlingham Recording area, however in 2017 three records were received. The latter two, (possibly all three) probably relate to the same individual, with a male bird regularly seen around the same time around the area at the start of the Marriott’s Way in north-west Norwich (see Figure 2), the likely bird. A second bird was also present in the same area from November, with proof that at least two individuals were present in the Norwich area coming on 24th November when Gary White photographed them together at Train Wood. Details of the Whitlingham sightings: 1. Trowse, 21st May 2017 – This bird flew over Trowse Green into Whitlingham airspace (JL) 2. Thorpe Marshes, 26th September 2017 – A Ring-necked Parakeet was found calling from scrub near the mooring basin at Thorpe Marshes before flying across the river to Whitlingham C.P. (RC) 3. Whitlingham C.P, 12th October 2017 – This time the parakeet was seen and heard calling from the tall trees on the main island (GW). As the year progressed two birds (a male and a female) were seen together on several occasions in the NR3 area of Norwich, which due to the timing suggest that sightings of a bird seen regularly at Hellesdon may well relate to a third individual. All of the Norwich sightings that I am aware of are shown on Figure 1. Note that many locations have hosted multiple sightings. The numbers refer to the number of birds seen at one time in that location. 5 Figure 1 – Ring-necked Parakeet sighting locations in 2017 based on observations, submitted records and social media sightings. Figure 2 – Ring-necked Parakeet at Train Wood, Norwich © Gary White 6 The spread of Ring-necked Parakeets is unlikely to be greeted with universal excitement because of their classification as an invasive non-native species. There is evidence that their presence can affect the feeding patterns of native birds (Peck et al, 2014) and also that they can outcompete cavity nesting birds like Nuthatches (Strubbe and Matthyson, 2009) Interestingly though, the latter authors also conclude “results indicate that there is no compelling evidence indicating that parakeets pose a threat large enough to justify an eradication campaign where they are currently present” in a second paper published the year after (Strubbe et al, 2010). A fuller discussion of the Ring-necked Parakeets and the potential issues around them can be found in Hannah Peck’s PhD thesis (see references below). References CAMBRIDGESHIRE BIRD CLUB (2014) Bulletin of the Cambridgeshire Bird Club, May & June 2014. Available online: www.cambridgebirdclub.org.uk/bulletins/CBC434_MayJun2014.pdf PECK, H.L. (2013), Investigating ecological impacts of the nonnative population of rose-ringed parakeets (Psittacula krameri) in the UK (available online). PECK H.L, PRINGLE, H.E, MARSHALL, H.H, OWENS, I.P.F. and LORD, A.M. (2014) Experimental evidence of impacts of an invasive parakeet on foraging behaviour of native birds. Behavioural Ecology vol 25, issue 3, pages 582-590. Available online: https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/25/3/582/513558 STRUBBE, D. and MATTHYSEN, E. (2009) Experimental evidence for nest-site competition between invasive ring-necked parakeets (Psittacula krameri) and native nutchatches (Sitta europaea). Biological Conservation vol 142, issue 8 pages 1588- 1594. STRUBBE, D, MATTHYSEN, E. and GRAHAM, C.H. (2010) Assessing The potential impact of invasive ring-necked parakeets Psittacula krameri on native nutchatches Sitta europaea in Belgium.